1. Technical Field
The invention relates to escapement mechanisms and related systems and processes. More particularly, the invention relates to escapement mechanisms and related systems and processes for oscillating systems, such as for but not limited to pendulums.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Historically, the gravity pendulum has been the most successful device for accurately regulating the timing of a mechanical clock. The frequency of such a simple pendulum is approximately proportional to the square root of the ratio of earth's gravity to length of the pendulum (f=2π√{square root over (l/g)}). Because the force of gravity is reasonably constant, keeping the period constant is largely a matter of keeping the length constant, which can be accomplished by careful selection of the materials and geometry, while paying special attention to expansion due to changes in temperature.
While an idealized pendulum has all of its mass concentrated at a point, real pendulums are actually compound pendulums, with a distributed mass. In general, a compound pendulum has a longer period than a corresponding idealized pendulum, because of the extra moment of inertia contributed by the distribution of the mass.
Mechanical clocks commonly include an escapement mechanism to input a controlled amount of stored energy to a pendulum, wherein the stored energy typically comprises potential energy provided by a weight and/or a spring.
One problem with clock escapements is that there is normally some variability in the drive torque of the escape wheel, which can lead to variability in the energy applied to the pendulum. This can in turn lead to inaccuracies in the clock's ability to keep steady time.
One method of reducing this variability is delivering the impulse to the pendulum indirectly, through an intermediate energy storage device that delivers a more constant impulse. For example, in a typical gravity escapement, the torque from the escape wheel is used to lift a weight to a fixed height, and the dropping of that weight delivers the impulse. This isolates the strength of the impulse from the torque applied to the escapement, but it does not solve the problem entirely, because the energy that must be removed from the pendulum to release the escape wheel may still depend on the torque applied to the escapement.
While some prior systems have provided detachment systems that attempt to decouple energy that is input into a pendulum, some of these systems provide energy input at the end of a swing, which is subject to variability.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide an escapement mechanism that provides improved detachment of energy and torque to an oscillatory system.
The development of such an escapement mechanism would constitute a significant technological advance.